WTTS – New York

Winnie and Pooka were not impressed with our accommodations last night. Pooka finally had enough and insisted we all get up at 5:15am. They both fussed and grumbled their way through breakfast and Pooka basically herded us all into the car by 6:30.

Since we’d had to drive further than Brian had planned to find a hotel (because our VRBO cancelled us!) and Pooka’s insistence on an early start, we were actually way ahead of schedule this morning.

Today was just a driving day, but we took it a little slower and made a few extra potty stops… and got Starbuckies!

In the last hour of our drive, on our way through New York… (Hwy 95?) all hell breaks lose in the car. Google Maps is telling us to stay in this lane or that and Brian keeps asking me ‘where does she want me to go?’) You know things are bad when Brian is asking me for directional assistance.) Winnie wakes up because her mini fan has come apart and the blades are rattling like mad in the back seat. She’s also pissed because Brian closed the window… again!.. and she told him to leave the window cracked at all times! But Pooka wants the window closed because the highway smells funny and even open just a crack the window lets in a lot of smells and heat and now she’s hot and can’t get comfortable and she’s pissed too and wants to sit on Brian’s shoulder and she and Winnie are arguing and I can’t get my arm over the back seat and reach the fan and if I could just take Pooka’s pillow and wack the fan hard enough….. Finally Brian turned off 95 and onto a much calmer road. (Later, he was able to put Winnie’s fan back together, but didn’t appreciate the way I’d ‘fixed’ it.)

If you’ve met me you know that I’m not a city girl. I don’t like crowds and building and noise… just the idea of New York just freaks me out. Admittedly, most of my knowledge of New York comes from Law & Order. (Great show, but not so awesome for tourism.) So I was pleasantly surprised when Brian finally turned off of 95 and into a quiet residential area filled with cute little houses with flower filled yards. Not a grizzly crime scene or blood smear to be seen. Whew! AND our VRBO was adorable, clean and actually ready! Thank goodness. I think Winnie would have revolted and cancelled the whole trip if I would have had to take her to another hotel.

After we fed the girls and took them for another potty break it was time to find our own dinner. Of course, I turned to my favorite app, Find Me Gluten Free. (I upgraded to the Premium Subscription for this trip since one of the premium features is that you can filter by ‘Open Now.’ There are also some other bonus options if you purchase the upgrade through their website as opposed to purchasing through the App Store or in-app)

Frankie & Fanucci’s got good reviews and they had GF options actually listed on their online menu. Normally, Brian and I will be sensible and split a pizza and an order of pasta. We’ll compromise and pick something that both of us like, but tonight I just wasn’t feeling like compromising my carbs. We both ordered a pizza and a pasta! It was ridiculous. The menu specifically warned that the GF pizza was a personal size pizza. Well, I don’t know who this person is that they were sizing this pizza for, but they’ve got a lot more tummy space than I do. The pizza and the pasta portions were very generous…. and delicious!

After dinner the girls ran around the house like lunatics. Pooka has only lived in an open floor plan and hasn’t had the joy of hallways. She ran loops around Winnie, dashing down the hallway and zipping from rug to rug for a burst of speed. Winnie did several laps and then switched to just leaping out and nipping at Pooka’s tail as she’d circle the coffee table. Finally they were exhausted enough that Brian and I were able to take our showers and get ready for bed.

Hopefully, they’ll sleep tonight and let us sleep in for a bit in the morning. Tomorrow’s dive should be much shorter.